A Lot Happens in 52 Years | 26FA Class #21 Full Lecture
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Overview
Irvin Moore reflects on spending 52 years in Pennsylvania prison after entering in 1969, contrasting punitive confinement with rehabilitation, education, and the possibility of redemption. Through examples ranging from the moon landing and early prison deprivation to his release into a world of smartphones, Moore argues that curiosity, community, self-knowledge, and young people can help address persistent racism, poverty, and injustice.
Key takeaways
- Moore argues that punishment and rehabilitation are distinct: punishment can inflict suffering without addressing the conditions that lead to harm, while rehabilitation requires opportunities for learning and change.
- Moore’s return after 52 years exposed dramatic changes in costs and technology: a Philadelphia cheesesteak rose from about 35 cents to $19, and smartphones surpassed the capabilities of the room-sized computers he knew before prison.
- Early prison isolation kept Moore from learning about the July 20, 1969 moon landing for two years; access to books, education, and conversation later became central to his growth and teaching.
- Moore says racism, poverty, and hunger persisted across the decades of his incarceration, and describes the justice system as racially biased while remaining hopeful about young people’s capacity to improve it.
- Reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning helped Moore earn acceptance into an older incarcerated men’s learning circle and connected his own confinement to questions of meaning and human endurance.
- Moore’s experience challenges the idea that life sentences should foreclose redemption: Pennsylvania life sentences historically meant imprisonment until death, including for children as young as 12.
Chapters
- Irvin Moore distinguishes punishment, which he describes as vengeance that does not necessarily prevent harm, from rehabilitation, which he sees as a separate goal.
- He introduces Cora, his rescued dog, and explains that he focuses on socializing her after severe abuse rather than teaching her tricks.
- Moore entered the penitentiary in 1969 and says punishment and rehabilitation have not been adequately connected.
- When Moore left Philadelphia in 1969, a cheesesteak cost about 35 cents; after his release, one cost him $19.
- He recalls an average wage of about $1.25 an hour and a new Cadillac costing roughly $2,500.
- Personal computers did not exist when he entered prison; a smartphone he received after release could do far more than the room-sized computers of that era.
- Moore describes learning to use payment cards, store kiosks, and a smartphone after decades without those technologies.
- Moore says racism, poverty, and hunger remain serious problems despite the nearly 60 years since his incarceration began.
- He calls himself an eternal optimist while acknowledging ongoing conflict and social obstacles.
- At Penn State, Moore works with the College of Education’s Restorative Justice Initiative and points students toward its work.
- He says young people give him hope that communities and society can change.
- Moore says prison days could feel like weeks or months because of the stress and events he was trying to endure or avoid.
- Five years after coming home, he sometimes feels as if he has only just been released.
- He describes learning incrementally, one step and one thought at a time, and says he is close to completing his undergraduate degree.
- Moore values teaching and learning as a reciprocal exchange of knowledge.
- Moore says he believes God is everywhere and present in every person, while respecting people with different beliefs or no belief.
- He says he did not first find God in prison; instead, prison brought his existing faith into sharper focus.
- After unintentionally taking another person’s life, Moore struggled with guilt and began confronting what he had done.
- He connects his growth to the principle “Know thyself” and to understanding right and wrong.
- Moore says basic social life remained familiar because people still gather, communicate, learn, identify with groups, and sometimes fight.
- He names clubs, sports, clothing, video games, and music as ways people signal identity and belonging.
- Hip-hop and rap were not established genres when Moore entered prison; he views them as developments from earlier rhythmic and melodic traditions.
- Moore entered prison on July 18, 1969, two days before Apollo 11’s moon landing, but says people inside did not hear about it for two years.
- Early in his incarceration, Moore recalls no radio, television, magazines, school, or library; the Bible was the main book available.
- After incarcerated people struggled for access to education and books, Moore read widely and began sharing information with peers.
- One routine he kept after release is going to bed around 9 p.m. and waking around 4 or 5 a.m. to study, think, and reflect.
- Moore describes the American justice system as unfair and inherently biased, connecting that judgment to racial inequities and unconscious racism.
- He criticizes how quickly people may notice a person’s race before seeing that person simply as a human being.
- Moore says he loves the opportunities available in the United States but believes the country still has substantial work to do.
- In his senior living complex, he organized gatherings so residents who had lived nearby for decades could meet and build relationships.
- Moore says studying and reading helped him question hatred and understand perspectives beyond his own.
- Learning about other people, living things, Earth, and the scale of the universe changed how he saw humanity’s place in life.
- He says this wider perspective helped him become more peaceful and open to the possibility that life exists elsewhere in the universe.
- Moore defines community as family, home, tribe, and nation, and as the social environment where people develop identity in relation to others.
- He explains that Pennsylvania life sentences historically meant imprisonment until death, with no parole for people serving life sentences.
- Pennsylvania, especially Philadelphia, had many juvenile lifers, including people sentenced at ages 12, 13, and 14.
- Moore questions whether people who commit heinous acts can never change, be forgiven, or receive compassion.
- In prison, groups larger than two could be punished, so older incarcerated men formed spaced-out circles to share stories and knowledge without appearing to congregate.
- An older man gave Moore a book and asked him to discuss its central protagonist; Moore initially pretended to have read it, then stayed up for hours finishing it.
- The book was Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, about surviving Nazi concentration camps and helping others endure suffering.
- Moore says the older men welcomed him into their circle after he returned ready to discuss the book.
- Moore compares early prison conditions to a harsher version of The Shawshank Redemption, recalling that there was no prison library or radio.
- In the segregation unit, or “the hole,” he describes a bare mattress, a thin blanket, no light bulb, no reading material, and little beyond three daily meals.
- He says prisons later added televisions, radios, phone calls, texting, and tablet music, though a 15-minute phone call could cost $15 and a song $1.70.
- Moore contrasts those prices with his prison wages, which topped out at 42 cents an hour.
- Moore built close relationships in prison, mentoring younger men and helping them navigate the system; some still contact him about jobs, marriages, and families.
- He says incarcerated people bring skills and cultural practices from the outside, while prison communities can develop remarkable creativity with materials such as cardboard, soap, and plastic.
- Moore became an artist and musician in prison and now holds art exhibits, including a planned exhibit at Wake Forest University.
- Through the College of Education’s Restorative Justice Initiative, he supports degree-oriented prison education and highlights incarcerated students’ hunger and drive to learn.
Transcript excerpt
0:00 Next to me is one heck of a guy. You guys met him on Thursday. You came to class and Sam introduced you a little bit. Um, but you are here to answer questions about reform, justice, >> about life, >> about life. So, I'm going to get us started. You're going to have three minutes to answer each question. So, please make sure that it is three minutes. You're going to make sure it's three minutes. And our friends here are going to ask some more questions after I'm done asking my first one. But if you guys in the room have questions that you would like to ask, feel free to raise your hand and we'll give you a microphone to ask as well. So I have it written down. I have it written down everything. >> So to get us started, what is the relationship between punishment and rehabilitation that people might not
0:48 know or that people might miss? >> Good question. First of all, thank everyone for being here. My name is Urban Moore. This is Kora. Before I answer questions, I'd like to say a little bit about who I am, what I think, and why I'm even here. Why are you guys here? You know, we can go into the questions. And Sam is a stickler for protocol, for timing. I am not. So, we have some timekeepers here. Whether or not I follow their instructions, we'll see. But again, this is Kora. She's my dog.
1:39 I've had Kora for close to four years now. Look at her. She thinks she's a puppy. Cory is six years old, but she thinks she's a puppy because she's never had puppyhood. She's a rescue that was horrifically abused. I mean, a whole ball of wax emotionally, physically,
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